The rate of malnourished children is on the rise in Mashonaland West province, a health ministry official has confirmed.
The District Medical Officer for Chegutu, Dr Tonderai Nhende, attributed this to bad harvests and poor breast feeding habits by mothers.
“One in every three children in Zimbabwe is stunted and an overview of the breast feeding practices in the province revealed that only 10,9% of infants were exclusively breastfed,” he said.
He said the majority of children were not receiving a minimum acceptable diet. According to the 2010/11 Demographic Health Survey, over a third of Zimbabwe’s children under the age of five were chronically malnourished and stunted, and an estimated 15,000 of them were at risk of dying from the condition.
Nhende said malnourished children were more susceptible to disease, suffered cognitive impairment, had poor educational outcomes and reduced economic productivity as adults.
The World Health Organisation and UNICEF have worked with government for decades to promote infant and young child feeding practices to reduced infant mortality. However, because there have been a spate of poor harvests countrywide, the majority of rural women said they have been forced to wean their children after realising that they are not capable of breast feeding due to hunger.
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